Televisão de Cabo Verde is the oldest television channel in
Cape Verde
Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...
, owned by public company RTC. TCV airs local and international programming; since 2013, its local output became available abroad on TCV Internacional.
History
Early experiments
Long before the first regular television broadcasts started in Cape Verde, the first attempts at bringing television came at the mercy of Chibeto Faria, a bank manager, who lived in the island of São Vicente. Since Cape Verde had no television station at the time, the closest television stations were from the
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...
Senegal
Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...
( ORTS, broadcasts started in 1965, regularized in 1972). To receive these signals, Chibeto had to transport his television set by donkey to Monte Verde (approximately 5 kilometers). The television viewers at the time preferred feature films and football matches.
With a growing number of viewers and followers of Chibeto, he decided to look for assistance from technicians to study the feasibility of a television service covering
with assistance from a French technician. With no money to start work, he started a fundraising campaign to set up the service. This also included the installation of a television transmitter at Monte Verde. Few households had a television set.
Shortly afterwards, in 1975, Hilário Brito, executive director of Cabo Verde Telecom, decided to implement a plan for the introduction of a television service in
Praia
Praia (, Portuguese for "beach") is the capital and largest city of Cape Verde. Hilário's television station, dubbed "TV Hilário", started producing some content of its own, mixed with pirated content. His television station had no license and the international content was in violation of international property rights.
TEVEC
In the early 80s, RTP signed a protocol with the Cape Verdean government to supply equipment and trained staff for TEVEC, with its launch scheduled for 1983. Corsino Flores set up the project for the television service, beginning investments in equipment and obtaining staff. Studies were being made for the installation of television transmitters in three islands, Sal, São Vicente and Santiago. The national television corporation was given the name Televisão Experimental de Cabo Verde or TEVEC, it started on March 12, 1984, nine years independence and started operating its regular service on December 31, 1984. It had 22 professionals and broadcast three days a week for several hours.
Over the years, TEVEC grew and increased its frequencies and transmissions. In its early years, the station broadcast four hours a day, from 8pm to midnight, using the
SECAM
SECAM, also written SÉCAM (, ''Séquentiel de couleur à mémoire'', French for ''sequential colour memory''), is an analog color television system that was used in France, Russia and some other countries or territories of Europe and Africa. ...
-DK system.
Some years before the foundation, poet
Corsino Fortes
Corsino António Fortes (14 February 1933 – 24 July 2015) was a Cape Verdean writer, poet and diplomat. He served as the first Ambassador of Cape Verde to Portugal from 1975 until 1981 following his country's independence.
Biography
Fortes wa ...
, then Deputy Secretary to the Prime Minister and titular Minister of Social Communications, inspired a television model of
Iceland
Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...
in which television stations existed and operated in small cities and proved the experimental mode for the country's model. The model worked even in its early years, below and above. In some shows, the signals abruptively interrupted. The station was known for its frequent transmission breakdowns
TNCV
On June 1, 1990 (June 23, according to some sources), the name TNCV (Televisão Nacional CaboVerdiana) marked a new era in Capeverdean television and no longer became experimental, it consolidated the idea of a national television that reflects culture and the making by its people. A second studio started construction and added several operators and capacitors began.
RTC and TCV
In March 1997, the former radio and television corporations were merged under the current Rádio Televisão de Cabo Verde e Empresas Públicas (RTC-EP). The network was founded in May 1997 by the Minister of Social Communications
José António dos Reis
José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced very differently in each of the two languages: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ).
In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , ...
. It merged with Radio Nacional de Cabo Verde (RNCV) and Televisião Nacional CaboVerdiana (TNCV). The radio station was named RTC FM and the television channel, RTC. The current name for the channel was adopted in 1999.
The network was the first to broadcast elections, the 2001 federal elections,
parliamentary
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
and the
presidential
Presidential may refer to:
* "Presidential" (song), a 2005 song by YoungBloodZ
* Presidential Airways (charter), an American charter airline based in Florida
* Presidential Airways (scheduled), an American passenger airline active in the 1980s
* ...
.
It had broadcast the
World Cup
A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...
games in which is one of the few international games seen, there were no international coverages except for the African sporting events until the 2000s. The network also broadcasts the
FIBA World Championship
The FIBA Basketball World Cup is an international basketball competition between the senior men's national teams of the members of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), the sport's global governing body. It takes place every four ye ...
games.
Excluding
RTP África
RTP África is a Portuguese television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP). It is available in the Portuguese-speaking African countries, where it is available as a basic cable and sa ...
, it was the only local television channel in Cape Verde until the launch of TIVER and Record Cabo Verde in 2007.